E-inking the Deal

E-ink has its nose in books, but it’s also protecting your credit card info and soldiers.

At the Amazon event this week, spectators could be forgiven if they were expecting e-ink to go up in flames with the reveal of the Kindle Fire. To their surprise, Chairman and CEO Jeff Bezos also brought out three new e-ink-powered Kindles: the Kindle Touch in a Wi-Fi-only and a Wi-Fi 3G version, as well as a reworked Kindle. On stage, Bezos ticked off the advantages of e-ink: "No backlight, no eyestrain, no interfering with sleep cycles, it's like a printed page, long battery life."

But e-ink isn't just for e-readers. Remarkably low in power consumption and highly adaptable, it's spilled over into other markets as small as key fobs and as large as camouflaged tanks.

While e-ink might have heralded the death of print, in reality, it's composed of the same pigments used in printing. That's partly why it so closely mimics the look of ink on paper. Tiny pinpoints of encapsulated particles are suspended in a clear liquid and switched from black to white via an alternating current of electricity.

As far as that electricity goes, e-ink sips it, consuming farless than LCDs. E-ink requires power only when swapping images, not continuously, as do LCDs. Additionally, it's easier on the eyes than LCD, with virtually no glare. It's thin yet flexible, which lets it adhere to microthin surfaces like fabric and paper. (It's not all bad news for print.)

E-ink came to be in MIT's Media Lab, also home to Guitar Hero and One Laptop per Child's XO laptop. The development team spun off to form the appropriately named E Ink, a manufacturing company which now lists Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Casio, Hitachi, Lexar, Motorola, Samsung, and Sony among its clients.